‘BioShock’ Film Rescued by Netflix
It seems like renowned game BioShock will have a shot at a film adaptation after all, as Netflix is teaming up with 2K and Take-Two to produce the project.
The surprising news arrived via Netflix’s official social media channels:
Would you kindly…get excited because Netflix is partnering with 2K and Take-Two Interactive to produce a film adaptation of the renowned video game franchise BIOSHOCK! pic.twitter.com/lUqfaNlbc4
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) February 15, 2022
According to THR, Vertigo Entertainment and Take-Two will serve as producers. No writer or filmmaker is on board at this time, and the partnership deal has been in the works for almost a year.
This is not the first time Hollywood has tried to make a film out of 2007’s hit video game, as Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring) and Universal tried for years to get it off the ground, only to part ways due to creative differences over the film’s planned R-rating and the massive budget required to properly recreate the underwater world of Rapture. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) was also attached to BioShock for some time, but game’s makers ended up shutting down the project. With Netflix comes the opportunity to have both a huge budget and enough creative freedom, but let’s hope it lands both a solid director and experienced writers — BioShock is not a simple story nor universe to recreate in another medium.
Here’s BioShock‘s basic synopsis, which only scratches the game’s surface:
BioShock takes place in 1960, where Jack, the sole survivor of a plane crash in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, discovers the entrance to the recluse underwater city of Rapture, at the end of a civil war which left most of it in disrepair. Finding himself trapped in a strange and dangerous dystopia, and with only a mysterious man called Atlas helping him, Jack has no choice but to fight for his survival against Rapture’s mutated and monstrous denizens, using all types of weapons and genetic enhancements, as he searches for a way to return to the surface.
BioShock spawned two sequels: BioShock 2 (2010) and BioShock Infinite (2013). The latter takes place in 1912, before the events of the first game, and greatly expanded the saga’s narrative possibilities moving forward. Ken Levine, the mind behind the original BioShock and Infinite, left 2K Games shortly after the release of the latter, but a fourth installment is currently in development at Cloud Chamber, a new 2K studio formed by BioShock veterans.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
